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Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Aerials. . .

I first came across Aerials when I started out as a high school music teacher. It was one of the tracks that students always wanted to play for music assessments. The thing that struck me the most was that the students loved playing the song but I would never hear the lyrics because they played the instruments - nobody was game enough to be the vocalist. I found this to be the case quite often throughout my teaching career. Students loved playing the instruments but very few ventured out to sing. Life is a waterfallWe're one in the riverAnd one again after the fallSwimming through the voidWe hear the wordWe lose ourselvesBut we find it all?
The introduction begins with the arpeggiated semiquavers before the lead vocal enters. It seems like a curious start, like you're not expecting this to be a "natural" opening to a song with the verse not being the tonic chord. The distinctive semiquaver crotchet - semiquaver crotchet pattern also begins its sequence after the last line of the opening verse. This song is a great exercise in analysing form and composition layout for students. The vocal harmony is also a key feature of the song.

Cause we are the ones that wanna playAlways wanna goBut you never wanna stayAnd we are the ones that wanna chooseAlways wanna playBut you never wanna lose
Having to make a choice but also exploring the contrary nature of what it means to be human (even though the video features what appears to be an alien figure) makes me think about the red pill / blue pill conversation between Neo and Morpheus in The Matrix. You will come across people in your life who will be contrary for the sake of being contrary and you need to figure out how to deal with that, how you are going to cope with being able to co-exist and agree to disagree. There's nothing worse than someone constantly trying to be right all the time, someone who always wants to be right all the time. I mean seriously - will this be your greatest contribution? To be the one who is always right? Will it make a difference to everyone to be right? To be true? To be real? Which of these resonate more strongly with you?Aerials, in the skyWhen you lose small mindYou free your lifeAerials, so up highWhen you free your eyesEternal prize. . .
I hope that if I choose to look up and see those aerials that they will be able to shed some light on the mysteries of our minds, of human experiences and not because I want to be right, but because I just want to know. I mean don't you want to know how free a life you're supposed to be living and what the eternal prize will be? Others are more sure about their eternal rewards and prizes, having the faith to believe in what the natural course of what goodwill towards fellow man delivers.